'Target banks' call on drug money

Banks, bureaux de change and travel agencies that act as money-laundering fronts for the drugs trade should be targeted by police forces around the world, Keith Hellawell, Britain's anti-drugs coordinator, said yesterday.

Speaking at a conference, Drugs: an international dialogue, Mr Hellawell said that the collusion of financial institutions and countries that allow anonymous bank accounts with the drugs trade was a major obstacle to tackling the spread of narcotics.

"Rather than just seeing dawn raids on dealers and users of drugs, I would like to see dawn raids on a series of banks, travel agents and bureaux de change that front and launder this drug money," he told delegates.

Mr Hellawell said that the issue of laundering and financial support for the trade had only been "played with" and that it needed to be pushed to the top of the political agenda.

The collusion, either knowingly or otherwise, of financial institutions in the drug trade was seen as a major obstacle to tackling drug trafficking. Countries that allowed people to open bank accounts identified only by number offered crucial anonymity to the drug trafficker, Mr Hellawell said.

Such countries include Costa Rica and Switzerland.

"The first thing to do is to persuade countries and states that have these banking systems to adapt into conventions.

"Of course, if these states are in Europe but don't want to join the EU then it is hard to make sanctions work," he said in a veiled reference to Switzerland.

Often travel companies are established as fronts for laundering drug money, and exchanging it for other currencies is a way of cleaning cash.

In the UK, all regulated deposit-taking organisations - there are 554 - ranging from high street and private banks to solicitors, accountants and insurance companies, are obliged to disclose suspicious transactions to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS).

There is concern within NCIS, however, that 49% of all suspicious deals are reported by the four high street banks.